Failure to attend out-patient clinics: is it in our DNA

Non–attendance rates at the neurology clinics in authors institution are high with almost 10 per cent of attendees admitting to missing an appointment. One of the main reasons why people did not attend was because they simply “forgot” that they had an appointment and the patients favoured a text messaging reminder system to help reduce non–attendance. Almost half of the respondents said that they would be willing to pay a refundable booking fee.